Page 131 of Anyone But Her

I'm surprised she remembered that. I told her that last spring on one of our late night phone calls. I love that she remembers stuff like that. That she listens, and cares.

"I love you, Taylor. I love you so much."

"I love you too." She pauses. "So what are you going to do? You have nowhere to stay tonight."

"I'll figure that out later. For now I'm gonna do like you said and go find a golf course. I need to calm down and think about what to do next. Can I call you later? On second thought you should probably call me, when your dad's not around to listen in."

"I will. And Luke?"

"Yeah?"

"This isn't your fault. It isn't your fault that we fell in love and just happened to end up living in the same house. I should've told my dad I had feelings for you when you moved in. Maybe he would've been okay with it if we hadn't lied."

"I doubt it. He still sees you as his little girl. He doesn't want to imagine you with a guy. Any guy. It's a dad thing. I get it."

"If Cal can get over it, my dad can too. It'll just take time. I'll let you go, but I'll call you later. I promise."

"Okay, bye."

I do a search on my phone for the nearest public golf course. It's not that far away. I drive there and park, and just seeing the green grass makes me start to relax.

Nobody stops me when I go through the place where you pay and out to the fairway so I continue walking until I reach a quiet spot along the edge of the course. I sit there on the grass, feeling the cool blades on the back of my legs, breathing in the fresh air, and suddenly I'm back to being a kid again. Back to being on the golf course with Albert.

Looking over at the first tee I notice a boy around thirteen playing golf with an older man, probably his grandfather. The man is helping the boy line up his shot, just like Albert used to do with me. I smile, thinking back to those times and how proud I felt when I hit my first shot all the way down the fairway. Albert rewarded me with ice cream afterwards. I couldn't stop smiling. Then I got home and got yelled at by my dad for forgetting to mow the lawn. He made me do it that night in the dark but I didn't care. I was still happy about getting my ball down the fairway in one shot.

I watch as the boy hits the ball. It doesn't go very far but the old man still pats him on the back and smiles in an encouraging way. Albert used to do the same thing to me.

I miss Albert. I wish he was still here.

"What should I do, Albert?" I ask as if he were sitting next to me. "I feel like everything I worked for is falling apart. And now Taylor's dad is trying to take her from me. I can't lose her, Albert. And I can't lose golf. I can't lose the two things in my life that make me the happiest." I gaze up at the sky. "I could really use your advice right now."

"Hey, there." The voice sounds distant but I look over and see it's coming from just a few feet away, from an older man wearing a maintenance uniform.

Assuming he's going to yell at me for sitting here, I stand up. "Sorry, I was just leaving."

"It's fine. I do the same thing myself sometimes. Look out at the grass. Take it all in. It's peaceful."

"Yeah. It is."

"You're that kid, right?"

"What kid? I'm not sure what you mean."

"The kid who won the tournament a few weeks ago. And you're on those commercials. The ones for that store. What's it called?"

"WaveField." I smile and hold out my hand. "Luke Sydel."

He shakes my hand. "Good to meet you, Luke. I'm Pat. I do maintenance around here. I'm supposed to be retired but I got bored sitting around all day. I've always liked golf so this is the perfect job for me."

"It's a nice course," I say as I look out at it.

"So what brings you here today? Girl trouble?"

I laugh. "You could tell something's wrong?"

He shrugs. "That's usually the story when I find people out here sitting on the grass." He sits down and motions me to do the same. When I do, he says, "So is that it? A girl?"

"Kind of. It's part of it."

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